


House

by ThatSinga



Series: Rowvember 2019 [14]
Category: Saints Row
Genre: Closure, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21518317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatSinga/pseuds/ThatSinga
Series: Rowvember 2019 [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1537489
Kudos: 7





	House

"A little more over there," I instructed as I entered the open kitchen, "Must've missed that spot," Johnny confirmed as he made his way over to where I had pointed and did his thing, "That should do it," he said after he was done, "You'll check the rest down here while I do upstairs," he suggested and was already halfway up the staircase before I could even argue, taking two steps at a time, "Suit yourself,"I uttered knowing he couldn't hear it.

I went back into the large living area where we had gathered so often in the past, where I saw her again for the first time in years, when we planned how to take back our city, as we sat around the TV watching the news report about our heist at the casino. I checked to make sure everything was ready, "Maybe a bit more along the walls," I thought out loud as I began to work around the room, the dining area was next on the list, as I walked over I slowed my pace, I had a lot of good memories here, that's where Aisha and I had bonded over a manicure, where she did my hair, where she had made me warm meals in the middle of the night whenever I crashed here, where we had talked about a potential threesome with Johnny when we were drunk off our asses from drinking too much wine, my heart sank into my stomach at my next memory, this is where she had died, where her head and body lay next to each other, soaking the carpet and the parquet with her blood. The sight of her severed head still haunted me, I would see it in my nightmares, back when it all happened I only caught a glimpse of her corpse since I was too distracted by figthing all the Ronin and then later rushing Gat to safety after that idiot pulled the sword out of his side. It's hard to imagine how Johnny must have felt however, sure, me and Aisha were pretty close, but what the two of them had was so much more.

No time to be sentimental now, we had a job to do, I was pretty much done with the ground floor so I decided to head upstairs to see what was taking him so long, as I made my way through the hallway I couldn't hear any footsteps or movement, "Johnny?" I called out, no response.  
I looked inside the bathroom, empty, the first floor was just as big as downstairs, he wasn't in her huge walk-in closet either, these rooms were already done, the only other place he could have been was the bedroom, the door was ajar so I peeked through the gap, Johnny was motionlessly sitting on the other side of the bed with his back turned to me, I knocked on the door but he didn't react at all, "Johnny?" I asked again as I let myself in, still no response, I closed the door behind me as I took a few steps towards him, "You alright?" I asked like an idiot when he clearly wasn't, I walked up next to him and saw he was holding something in his hands, as I curiously peered over his shoulder I realized it was a wooden picture frame with a photograph of him and Aisha, it must have been an older one, he still had his frosted tips and Aisha wore her typical clothes from before she 'died' in that bombing, "It's not your fault," I said softly, "What?" he finally replied, "I said it's not y-" "Of course it's my fucking fault!" he cut me off as he jerked up from the bed and slammed the the picture frame onto the floor, shattering the glass that covered the photo, "It was my dumb ass who brought the money back to this place! It was my dumb ass who disposed of that asshole's body in this house! It was my dumb ass who still went in through the front door when I noticed it was open instead of going around the back or look through the windows!" he yelled at me, it was unusual for me to be on the receiving end of his anger even though I knew it's not me he was upset with, "Don't burden yourself with that guilt, Johnny, Aisha would slap you across the face if she could hear you now," I scolded him, "I'm just as much to blame for all of this, I'm supposed to be the Boss but I never stopped you from bringing the cash here, I didn't help you dispose of the body elsewhere and I was stupid enough to follow you through the front door when we could have split up to check both entrances, it's my fault she died," I confessed with a lump in my throat, "I always bring misfortune upon others, first Lin, then Aisha and Carlos as well, I failed all of them," he looked at me with an expression I couldn't read before he lowly said, "It's not your fault either, none of those deaths were, it was that bald piece of shit who did this to her," he glanced down, "who did this to me, he indicated to the scar on his torso," then he looked at me, "who did this to you," he finished, referring to the scar across my face, "Fuck..." he looked down at the broken picture before picking up the polaroid and slipping it into his pocket, "You ready to go?" I asked him gently, "Yeah, I'm cool.... let's finish this," he replied with a low voice, "You sure you don't wanna take anything else?" I wanted to be certain he had everything he needed, "Nah, that's all."

We picked up our gasoline tanks and spread the liquid across the bedroom floor, when we were done in there we walked back through the hallway and poured more of it down the stairs, we stopped for a moment to look at these white walls one last time before eventually making a gas trail that lead outside of the property through the snow, "You still wanna do this?" I made sure one last time before there was no going back, "I have to close that chapter of my life, Boss, I need some closure," I looked him in the eye and nodded, "Alright," he reached into his jacket to retrieve a match-box, he lit a single match and looked at it for a few seconds before throwing it onto the ground to ignite the gas. We took a few steps back onto the road as the flame quickly made its way inside the house where it set fire to the larger puddles across the interior, it didn't take long until the entire bottom floor was engulfed in a bright orange light, shortly thereafter the same was the case for the upper floor, the windows burst from the heat, helping to further fuel the flames with air, the fire was getting pretty loud, soon everyone in the vicinity would be awake, a thick black smoke was rising above the building, the snow around the house quickly disappeared, and the now exposed grass turned black as it got burnt, it was a cold night but we could feel the heat of the fire radiating all the way out onto the street.

Johnny just stood there and watched, not moving at all, I tried to get a look at his face, he wore a stoic expression, his mouth was a fine line and I couldn't see his eyes, just the flames reflecting in his glasses, however I could make out a single tear track run down his cheek, when he saw me looking he quickly turned his head and wiped his face with his sleeve before turning back towards the fire, I put my arm around his back and he drew me in closer by putting his arm around my shoulders, we just stood there for I don't know how long and watched it burn. After a while lights started to turn on in the neighbouring houses, followed by screams and people running outside their front doors and staring in horror, nobody seemed to notice us just stand there in the middle of the road, there was a thunderous rumbling when the structure gave in, more screams resonated throughout the neighborhood as the roof collapsed, off in the distance I could hear sirens blaring already, "It's time to leave," I told him over the ruckus but he either didn't hear me or ignored my words, "We have to get out of here, now!" I stressed the last part, he slowly nodded as he took his arm off my shoulder and we made our way towards the car we had parked down the road, the moment I was away from the fire I was freezing again, even in the thick coat I was wearing. Johnny hopped in the driver's seat and I rode shotgun, the sirens were close now, he slowly drove up to the street in front of the burning building and stopped to look at it one last time before finally driving off into the night.


End file.
